PORTLAND — For the opening of its 85th anniversary season, Portland Symphony Orchestra Music Director Robert Moody will lead the orchestra along with Portland Stage Company actors in a program titled “Heroes and the American Dream.”

The concert on Tuesday, Oct. 6, will open with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” (Italian for “heroic”), originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte but retitled after the former revolutionary, so admired by Beethoven, had himself declared emperor.

The symphony itself is the true revolutionary, more structurally complex and sophisticated than any that had come before, and known for its display of a great range of emotion.

The second half of the program will feature “Ellis Island: The Dream of America,” by composer Peter Boyer. Innovative in its format, the work brings elements of the theater and multimedia into the concert hall, employing seven actors from Portland Stage Company and projected historical images from the Ellis Island archives.

The spoken texts for the work come from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, a collection of interviews with immigrants about their experiences coming to America. Boyer fashioned short monologues from the actual words of these immigrants, and wove them into an orchestral tapestry which frames and comments on their stories. The work concludes with a reading of the Emma Lazarus poem “The New Colossus” (“Give me your tired, your poor…”), providing an emotional ending to this celebration of our nation of immigrants.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Merrill Auditorium. Tickets, ranging from $20 to $70, are available at 842-0800 or www.porttix.com. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the box office at 20 Myrtle St. from noon to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

A Concert Conversation with Robert Moody and composer Peter Boyer will precede the performance at 6:15 p.m., and the concert will be followed by a PostConcert Q&A with the artists. A live recorded broadcast of the concert can be heard on Maine Public Broadcasting Network on Wednesday, Oct. 21.

Students in grades 5 and up are invited to attend the open dress rehearsal at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5. Dress rehearsals are free, but space is limited and reservations are required. E-mail [email protected] or call 773-6128, extension 308, for more information.